(Syria Files) Exclusive- Syria’s security services have arrested dozens of officers over the past few months who had inspected the detention site of the American journalist Austin Tice, a well-informed source told Syria Files Sunday.
The Presidential Palace has put all officials who deal with the journalist who went missing in 2012 under severe scrutiny, fearing they will reveal information to the U.S. intelligence or foreign intelligence agencies
The source said that the Syrian intelligence has hidden the location of the American journalist in the prison, indicating that it permanently changes Tice’s prison facility so that no officer can access him or know any information about his prison location.
Last June, Maj. Gen Maan Hussein, Director of the Army’s Public Communications was arrested due to ‘external communications’ about the Tice’s location, but Russia was able to uncover these contacts, according to the source.
The source did not rule out that Russia was fully aware of the details of Tice’s file, indicating that there were Russian efforts to conclude a deal between the U.S. and Assad.
The Syrian security services have been on full alert for three months over Austin’s missing as mediation efforts mounted by a number of European intelligence services, the identical sources confirmed.
Over the last eight years, Damascus has denied any information confirming that Tice is still alive or if he has been held by the Syrian security.
Amid the relentless pursuit by the U.S. intelligence and top Donald Trump’s aides to get Tice freed ahead of the presidential elections, Syria Files sources revealed that Iran and Russia, separately, are pressing on Bashar al-Assad to hand him over to them.
Analysts say that Tice’s case is a winning card for Bashar al-Assad, who seeks to revive relations with the White House even through hostage-diplomacy.
U.S. Official Meets Assad
Top White House official had met with the Assad regime in Syria recently to negotiate the release of US hostages, according to Trump administration officials and others, the Wall Street Journal Reported.
The hostages include Tice and Majd Kamalmaz, a Syrian-American therapist who disappeared at a Syrian government checkpoint in 2017, according to The Journal.
The secret meetings represented the first time such a high-level US official has met with the Assad regime in Syria in more than a decade.
The talks were to secure the release of U.S. hostages, including Austin Tice, a former Marine and freelance journalist who disappeared in 2012, and Majd Kamalmaz, a Syrian-American therapist who disappeared in 2017.
Robert Satloff, the Executive Director of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, expressed his concern that the price would be the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the al-Tanf base on the Iraqi-Syrian border, what would constitute a victory for Iran, Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.
The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed in August that President Trump had sent a letter to Assad last March, with the aim of negotiating the release of the kidnapped journalist.
Pompeo said that the U.S. government has repeatedly tried to communicate with Syrian officials to release Tice, while the former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sought in 2014 repeatedly to resolve the case, but the Assad government refused to cooperate.
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